Outfit to be registered as political party:Ranjit Deshmukh

Nagpur, Apr 21 (UNI) Rebel Congress leader Ranjit Deshmukh has said his Kisan Vikas Aghadi (KVA) would get registered as a political party and contest all the 66 assembly seats in the Vidarbha region in the next elections to the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly due in 2009.

Speaking to newspersons here yesterday, Mr Deshmukh said the KVA would fight for justice for farmers and the creation of a separate Vidarbha state.

A five-member committee would be formed to draw up the party's policies and programmes, he said.

The committee would prepare the party's manifesto in the next 15 days, Mr Deshmukh said, adding the KVA would apply to the Election Commission for registration as a regional political party.

Mr Deshmukh said that he would not insist on leading the nascent party, but would be happy to play the role of a 'co-ordinator.' The decision to register the KVA as a political party was made at a meeting of the organisation's workers here earlier in the day. The meeting authorised Mr Deshmukh to appoint the five members of the committee that would chalk out the party's policies.

The KVA was floated as a 'non-political organisation' just before the elections to Nagpur Zilla Parishad (ZP) in March last.

It had fielded candidates in all the 59 ZP constituencies. A former Maharashtra minister and a former chief of the state unit of the Congress, Mr Deshmukh raised the banner of revolt after the party denied him a ticket for the recent by-election from Ramtek Lok Sabha constituency in Vidarbha, and entered the fray as an independent. He was later expelled from the party for six years.

Although technically an independent, Mr Deshmukh had sought votes in the name of the KVA during electioneering for the by-poll. Mr Deshmukh lost his deposit in Ramtek, but his presence in the fray is considered to have helped the Shiv Sena retain the seat. The by-election in Ramtek was held because Subodh Mohite, who was elected in 2004 on a Shiv Sena ticket, resigned from the party and the House to join the Congress. Mr Mohite was the Congress nominee in the by-poll. The Shiv Sena had fielded Prakash Jadhav, who went on to win.

UNI